


New Family

by StevetheIcecube



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Child Neglect, Dickson? More like DICKson, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Fluff, Gen, Limited spoilers, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-01-07 00:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12221982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: Dunban's next door neighbour apparently decided he'd bring an orphan home one day, and he's lumbered (gifted) with the chance to really make a difference to his life.





	1. Meeting

Dunban didn’t even know that Dickson was back in town until he saw the new person who lived in the flat next door. The man did...something to do with trading, as far as Dunban knew (he always deflected the question when asked), and he was pretty much always out travelling. He brought strange things back pretty frequently, but never anything like this.

There was a kid out on the balcony that the two shared. They didn’t even have a divider up on it because Dickson never went out there, seeing as when he was in Colony 9 he usually just slept or sold things to the traders in the commercial district. But now there was a child out on the balcony, sitting in the evening sun and reading a book.

It was Fiora who told him; she normally played out there in the afternoons while he did the cooking, so he could watch her through the kitchen window. He hadn’t been able to see the boy, who was hidden just out of sight. “Dunban there’s a boy on the balcony!” She called, running straight back inside. At her words, he put the potato masher down and went in front of her onto the balcony.

As he stepped out, the boy looked up for only a moment and then returned to his book. Dunban fought back the urge to demand to know who the boy was and tell him to leave the balcony; for all he knew, the kid could be some until now undiscovered son of Dickson’s, and now he was living here and he had just as much right to be on the balcony as Fiora. Instead, he took a moment to think about the situation. The boy was only young, perhaps younger than Fiora, so he wasn’t any danger to her.

“Hello,” he said, ducking down a little so he was on the same level as the boy, who looked up again. “I haven’t seen you around before. I’m Dunban, and this is my sister Fiora, who are you?”

“Dickson said not to talk to strangers until he got back,” the boy said. His voice was soft and had a fairly distinct Upper Bionis accent. What kind of things had Dickson got himself into this time to bring a kid back? Dunban quickly checked that the boy wasn’t High Entia, just in case he’d managed to miss something, but he clearly wasn’t.

“Okay,” Dunban said. “Well, this balcony is shared between my flat and Dickson’s flat, so if it’s okay could my sister come and play out here? Just let me know when Dickson comes home and we can do proper introductions.”

The boy nodded and returned his gaze to his book almost immediately. Clearly not the most social child, but it really didn’t seem like he was dangerous or anything like that. He could leave Fiora out there, but he’d just have to keep a close eye on her. She may be eight, but he didn’t want to leave her on her own on a balcony unsupervised.

By the time he’d finished cooking, Dickson hadn’t returned. Dunban put the balcony light on when he spotted the boy closely examining his pages, clearly unable to see them in the darkness. When they’d finished eating, he was still out there and Dickson still wasn’t back. Dunban would bet he was in the pub in the commercial district and he’d probably forgotten he’d brought a kid back. That was exactly the kind of thing Dickson would do.

 

“Hey, do you want some food?” Dunban asked, going out onto the balcony. Fiora was standing at the door, pretending she wasn’t listening in to every word. “You must be hungry, and there’s plenty left over.” He depended on leftovers to feed Fiora when he was too tired to cook something properly, but he felt like giving it to this boy was a valuable cause too.

“I’m not- okay, I will,” he said reluctantly, standing up and putting his book on his chair. “Thank you.”

“Do you mind if we get a proper introduction now?” He asked. Knowing Dickson, this kid could be on his own for the next few hours at least, and he didn’t really want him to be alone. The boy had probably travelled quite a way to get here, and Dunban had no idea what kind of circumstances had brought him so far down the Bionis.

“Shulk,” he said. “My name’s Shulk. Dickson said not to talk to strangers but-”

“You’re hungry, right?” Dunban asked with a smile, and Shulk nodded, looking a little sheepish. “It’ll take me a moment to warm it up, but you can come in and eat. Is it okay if I ask you why you came all the way down here?”

“No,” he said simply, standing a little awkwardly at the entrance to the flat, staring at Fiora. Ah well, it didn’t matter. He could find out why he was here from Dickson, when he finally got back.

“You can come inside,” he said. “Fiora won’t bite, she’s just eaten.” To help matters, Fiora decided that she would bare her teeth at the poor boy in a grin, and he just about jumped out of his skin. “I’m going to close the door to the balcony because it’s getting sort of cold out there, but you’re free to leave when you want, it won’t be locked.” It didn’t need to be locked, seeing as they were five floors up.

“It’s really cool that you’re living next door!” Fiora said. “Are you moving to the school soon? What year are you in?”

Shulk looked positively terrified when asked all those questions. “I-I’ve never been to school before.” That just raised even more questions in Fiora’s mind, Dunban could see, but he shook his head and she closed her mouth with a slightly indignant glare at him.

“I’m sure Dickson has something planned if you’re staying here long term. Do you know if you’re moving on?” Shulk shook his head and sat down at the table. Dunban didn’t know exactly what that meant, but he wasn’t going to press the boy. It seemed like something had happened.

“I think I’m staying,” he said once Dunban had put a plate of pasta in the microwave. Shulk was swinging his legs and looking pointedly down at his placemat. “I don’t think I can go anywhere else.”

Dunban didn’t know what to say to that. Obviously there was a lot going on here he didn’t know about, and he wanted to help, but he could tell that Shulk didn’t want to talk about it. Also, the boy could only be nine at the oldest, so it was possible he didn’t even really understand what was going on or what may have happened to the people who looked after him before. “Here is a very nice place to stay,” he said. Shulk just nodded.

They sat in faintly awkward silence for a few moments, the only sound being the microwave gently whirring in the background. “There’s never anyone to play with here,” Fiora said. “But that’ll be different because you’re here, so I guess it is nice.”

Shulk blinked at her for a moment with a confused look on his face. He didn’t quite seem to gather what she’d said, but he nodded and shot her a weak smile. Fiora didn’t seem to notice, and she continued to chatter about the games she liked to play and things about her school and friends that Shulk probably had no hope of understanding, but it looked like he was listening anyway.

Dunban felt a bit awkward, giving a child food. He felt like the stereotypical orphan leader who looked after a horde of younger orphans, except he wasn’t cool and daring or a pickpocket or anything like that. He was just a teenager who was definitely financially unable to feed an extra child, but he couldn’t turn Shulk down. He’d just have to blackmail Dickson into giving him some money if he intended leaving a seven year old kid on his own all the time.

The meal progressed with Fiora continually talking and Shulk not saying a word. He ate very slowly, as if savouring every moment of his plain pasta with tinned tomatoes, but at the same time he ate with a kind of urgency that only came from going hungry a couple of times. Yeah, Dunban wanted to know what kind of home situation this kid had come from.

Dunban sent Fiora on to bed when Shulk was done eating (he said thank you very quietly but with no small amount of enthusiasm) and then waited in the tiny living room with Shulk, who seemed content to sit and read his book again. He was very quiet, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, because Dunban was tired and he really needed a nap.

He woke up about three hours later (oops, he wasn’t going to be able to sleep later) to Shulk tugging very gently on his sleeve. “I need to go to the bathroom,” he said very quietly. God, everything this kid did was quiet.

“You need to go to bed,” he said with a smile, trying not to show that he was faintly annoyed that he’d been woken up. It wasn’t Shulk’s fault, after all. He’d had a long day and mostly he was annoyed at Dickson for leaving him with another child for a solid four hours. Surely the man must be home by now?

He directed Shulk to the toilet and then went back out on the balcony with him to check if Dickson was in. The flat was still dark, but the door was unlocked. From the last time he’d been in here, a large amount of clutter had collected, and now there was a small heap of two thick coats by the front door and a large rucksack sitting next to a camp bed with a pile of blankets on it.

“You get some sleep,” Dunban said. “Dickson will be back, but if you need me before he gets back then you can call me.” He grabbed a piece of paper and pen that was sitting next to the phone by Dickson’s bed and wrote his mobile number down on it.

“Thank you very much,” Shulk said. He smiled at Dunban and he looked very sleepy. Poor kid, it was nearing midnight at this point and he must be absolutely exhausted.

“Any time,” Dunban said. “And that number doesn’t just apply for tonight, okay? Let me know whenever you need me. I’m usually at school during the day, but I can help with anything you need. Being alone is scary, especially when it happens suddenly. If you need something, don’t just hide away.”

“Thank you,” he said, and for just a moment he threw his arms around Dunban’s waist, pulling back almost instantly. “Goodnight, Dunban!”

“Goodnight, Shulk,” he said, heading back across the balcony to his own flat. What had he just gotten himself into? Honestly, he just hoped that things would work out okay. For all of them.


	2. Assistance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shulk is still alone the next day, so Dunban intervenes.

At eight the next morning, Fiora reported that Shulk was out on the balcony again. Dunban was just about ready to set out to take Fiora to school on the way to his own, but he felt like he should probably check on the boy before they left. “Good morning, Shulk!” He called, stepping out onto the balcony. Shulk looked up with a smile, looking pretty tired. If he was tired, why was he up?

“Good morning,” he said, folding a corner in his book, which was now nearly finished. Dunban had noticed briefly last night that it was written in a language he didn’t understand, probably the High Entian language.

“Did Dickson get you up early?” He asked with a friendly smile, and Shulk shook his head. Dunban frowned, because he could see where this was going. “Have you eaten this morning, then?”

Shulk shook his head again. “Dickson hasn’t come back yet,” he said. Dunban tried to disguise his sigh, knowing that Shulk might think he was angry at him and not Dickson, but he failed. How could one seemingly decent man be so irresponsible with a child? “But his alarm has been going for two hours and it’s in a locked cupboard.”

Dunban had to laugh at that one. That was a really good idea, just...not when you had a kid in your house and you just left them alone there with barely any warning. “You can come on in,” he said. “And I’ll get you something for breakfast.” They didn’t have much, but they could spare something.

“Thank you,” Shulk said, picking up his book and following Dunban into the house. Dunban grabbed him a cereal bar. “I- is Dickson coming back?”

“I’m sure he will,” Dunban said, but he wasn’t sure at all. In fact, he very much doubted that Dickson would come back for the next few weeks if he had already decided it was time to do something else. When he was actually in Colony 9, he always spent his nights in his flat. He’d give him the benefit of the doubt for a day, but after that...he didn’t know what he’d do.

Shulk sat at the table, swinging his legs as he sat there. Dunban didn’t know if he could leave a child here all day. He didn’t want to leave a kid on his own when there was no one to look after him and no one he knew around. It wasn’t like he could take him to school, though, and if he asked Fiora’s school to look after him then that would probably end with this really shy kid being put in foster care. He’d done everything he could to avoid that for Fiora and himself and he couldn’t let the same happen for Shulk...he just didn’t know how to avoid that but also keep the boy safe.

“Fiora, could you wait here a minute with Shulk?” He asked, crossing the balcony to get into Dickson’s flat. He knew it was technically trespassing on private property if he did this, but he needed to find a way to contact this deeply irresponsible man who’d decided that leaving a child alone in a flat was a good idea.

The flat was still dark which made it quite difficult, particularly because the light switches apparently didn’t work (another reason that he was getting increasingly annoyed at Dickson), but he managed to stumble around and find what looked like an address book. Sure enough, in the front of the small black book there was the address Dunban recognised as this flat and a mobile number.

He grabbed the book and went back into his own flat. He wasn’t planning on shouting at the man or anything, and he wanted Shulk to know that he was doing his best to get his wayward guardian to take responsibility for him. “Dunban, if we don’t leave we’ll be late for school!” Fiora said.

“This is a bit more important,” Dunban said. “Hey, if you’re late you get to miss assembly, so look at it that way, right?” Fiora seemed pleased by that and went back to sit at the table, where Shulk had resumed reading his book. Maybe he wasn’t quite the playmate Fiora had been expecting, but at least they weren’t tearing up the flat together. “I’m going to call Dickson and ask him where he is, Shulk, is that okay?”

Shulk looked up briefly and nodded before returning almost immediately to his book. Dunban wondered if a trip to the library was in order soon, or maybe if he could just leave Shulk there all day. That would probably work, honestly, if only Shulk didn’t need feeding. Hopefully Dickson just hadn’t come home, though, and Shulk would be able to stay here for the day. He dialed the number and prayed it was still in date and that Dickson would pick up.

For a moment, it didn’t even ring, and that felt like an age. It was entirely possible that the phone was off, or broken, or the number wasn’t in existence anymore. Then it rang for a few seconds, before the ringing cut off. Clearly, the call had been declined. Great. Dunban rang it again, just to make sure, and this time Dickson picked up. “Who are you and what do you want?” He asked.

“Hello, Dickson, it’s Dunban, I live in the flat next to yours. I was wondering if you were coming back to your flat any time soon, I don’t think Shulk should be left on his own for this long.”

“How do you know about Shulk?” Dickson didn’t sound annoyed anymore, just tired, which Dunban supposed was a good sign. “I told him he shouldn’t speak to strangers.”

“He was sitting on the balcony and you didn’t leave any food in the house,” Dunban said, hoping he didn’t sound too snappy. He was annoyed, but he didn’t want Dickson to mirror that, he just wanted him to come back so Shulk was safe. “So I gave him some dinner last night and breakfast this morning.”

“Ah shit,” Dickson said, and Dunban was very glad he hadn’t put the phone on speaker. “I thought he’d get tired and sleep a whole bunch, we’ve been travelling so long. Kid’s got stamina, I’ll give him that.”

“So, will you be coming back?” He asked. “I need to get myself and Fiora to school. I’m happy to look out for him, but if you’re going to be off travelling the whole Bionis like usual then he needs money and you need to work out how he’s going to be looked after during the day.”

“I should be back by lunch,” he said. “I’ve been out making deals and such. I’ll work something out with you when you get back from school, okay kid? I swear I’ll be back to feed Shulk before then, and I won’t leave until I’ve got everything sorted.”

“Thank you,” he said, feeling incredibly relieved. He and Fiora could go to school and Shulk hadn’t just been abandoned after being left in a strange place, presumably after going through something pretty rubbish in his life. “Well, I’ll see you later, thanks again.”

“See ya,” he said. “And thanks for looking after the kid.” With that, he hung up, leaving Dunban’s faith in him partially restored. It seemed like he’d just made an honest mistake about the power of children to be largely inconvenient to plans and he was going to try and correct that mistake.

“Dickson is coming back later,” Dunban informed Shulk, and his face lit up at the words. Poor kid. Everything was probably so uncertain for him right now, anything familiar was probably a godsend. “I have to go now, but I’ll still be mostly available if you want to call me if something goes wrong.”

“Thanks,” he said, jumping off the chair where he was sitting and heading towards the door. Dunban waved, and Shulk didn’t say anything more, he just went back outside to sit and read again. Strange kid, but sweet. Dunban was sure he’d be worrying all day, but he’d done what he could for now.


	3. Agreement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dunban returns to find Dickson actually in the flat.

When Dunban got home that afternoon, Fiora in tow, Shulk was out on the balcony again, this time with a different book that he’d clearly only just started. As soon as Fiora got out onto the balcony herself, he waved and rushed back into Dickson’s flat without another word. A few minutes later, Dickson emerged, looking even more haggard than he had last time Dunban had seen him over a month ago now.

“Ah, Dunban,” he said. “Shulk said you were back. Sorry about before, selling stuff can be such a hassle sometimes and I didn’t think Shulk’d be up and about. I’m sorry if he was any trouble.”

“Not at all,” Dunban said. The most trouble had been worrying about whether Dickson was going to return or not. “But I do think we need to talk about what’s going to happen with him if you’re going to be off again any time soon.” He hated talking about Shulk as if he wasn’t here, but he wanted to get straight to the point.

“Of course,” Dickson said. “Might be better if you come inside. The kids can play out here, don’t think they’ll get into any trouble. Shulk’s not a rowdy kid.” Dunban glanced at Fiora, who only smiled and nodded, so he agreed and headed into Dickson’s flat.

This time, it was slightly tidier. The coats that had been on the floor were now draped over a chair and the pile of blankets on the floor was slightly more orderly than it had been. “I think he was pretty scared last night,” Dunban said. “He was still awake at midnight.”

“Lord, kid, I said I was sorry,” Dickson said. “He went through the wringer and back in the last couple weeks, I thought he’d sleep for a lot longer.”

“Where did you find a child that you needed to bring all the way down the Bionis?” Dunban asked. “And why? Surely you’ve passed through other settlements along the way.” He felt bad for asking for all of Shulk’s secrets, but he told himself that knowing which topics he should avoid was a good idea.

“His parents were archaeologists,” Dickson explained. Were. Ah. “You know the Monado? They were chasing that fool’s tale, and traced it back to Valak Mountain, of all places. Fools through and through, both of them, and their whole party. They set off, kid and all, to one of the most dangerous places on the Bionis, and someone in Alcamoth sent me to try and find them.

“They’d managed to reach the cavern that was their goal, and I don’t know exactly what happened to them. Maybe they ran out of food in their journey, maybe they all froze, but they were all cold and dead by the time I got there. And no, there was nothing in the cavern. They did the whole thing for goddamn nothing.

“I don’t know what it was, some half cursed miracle for this boy, but he was still alive. Close to death, sure, asleep and probably fading fast, but he was still alive. I half carried him off the mountain, reported the death of his family to the authorities, and they didn’t seem to want to take him. There’s not really anywhere for Homs in Alcamoth or Frontier Village. By the time I was at Colony 6, I thought I may as well bring him all the way so I could check up on him every now and then. So now he’s here.”

“You didn’t really think about what you’d do with a little kid when you have to go off all round the Bionis, did you?” Dunban asked. He was shocked by the story and sort of felt like he should say something about what Dickson did to save Shulk’s life, but he was also angry at how irresponsible the man was. “Do you even know how old he is? How many conversations have you even had with him?”

“A few,” he said with a shrug. “We travelled back down here largely on foot, past Makna Forest. You don’t tend to count. He’s eight, he says, and I’d imagine he knows. Look, I didn’t think about whether it was really a good idea. But I remembered you struggling against the system and I thought you probably had a good reason to. Shulk isn’t exactly the most normal kid, I didn’t think it’d treat him right.”

Dunban had to admit that Dickson was tugging exactly the right heartstrings, but he still wasn’t exactly convinced. It remained that Dickson had brought a recently orphaned eight year old most of the way across the known world on foot for the sake of dumping him in a dead end town with no constant guardian. “So what are you going to do with him?” He asked.

“I was hoping you’d help me work that out,” Dickson said. “I don’t know how it works with kids. Obviously I can’t stay here all the time, but as I said, I won’t leave until stuff’s sorted with him.”

“Well you can’t leave him alone here all day, for a start,” Dunban said. “It’s law for children his age to be in school. Hell, I still have to be in school. Normal procedure if he doesn’t have a guardian is to give him to social care, but I get if you want to avoid that.”

Dickson nodded, and Dunban got the distinct feeling that he was feeling a lot more protective over Shulk than his words gave away. Any normal person would give up a child to social services in an instant; it was what made sense. Dickson clearly wanted to keep a hold on Shulk. “So is it possible to register him for school and leave it at that?”

“You have to feed him,” Dunban said. “And he won’t be able to do that himself.” He was loathe to suggest it, but he knew he’d have to offer to care for Shulk in return for the money needed. Dickson probably wouldn’t suggest it himself. “I could probably help, but I don’t exactly have a disposable income.”

“I know, kid,” Dickson said. Dunban actually didn’t know if Dickson could afford to raise a child. He had no idea how much money he earned doing these odd jobs all around the Bionis. Enough to rent a flat he barely slept in. “He needs food, and clothes, and shit like that. I can send you money and you can let me know if it’s not enough.”

That was...quite a trusting statement, on both ends. Dunban would have to trust that Dickson would actually send enough money rather than just leaving him with an extra child and no money, and Dickson had to trust Dunban that he was telling the truth about how much was needed. And Dunban didn’t exactly trust this older man who had no idea how to look after kids and never really spoke to the person he literally shared his balcony with. They shared a living space and this was the longest conversation they’d ever had.

“Sure,” Dunban said, without taking too much time to think about it. “I’ll look after Shulk for you.” Somehow, he got the feeling that this wasn’t going to end too well, another kid to look after, but he actually couldn’t bring himself to care about the consequences all that much. Shulk may be a bit of a mystery to him, but he was just a child. A child who had suffered unfairly and then been displaced by a man who didn’t want to look after him. Dunban couldn’t just ignore someone in need like that.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all :) Xenoblade is such a small fandom so I would really appreciate it if, if you liked this, you left a comment to let me know and spur me on!


End file.
